Posts Tagged ‘happy birthday to someone i love’

Over the weekend was busy

Wednesday, July 20th, 2011

I have a lot of thoughts rattling around in my brain today so this is going to be a “purge post” of several of those things.  So, in no particular order, here we go:

I am SO EXCITED that my sister gave birth to her son yesterday!  I’m looking forward to lots more pictures of Josiah and eventually getting up there to smother him in kisses.  I don’t know when that’s going to happen, since our financial situation for the second half of the year isn’t looking optimistic, but when it happens, it’s going to be awesome.  Especially because it’ll mean smothering all the rest of my nieces and nephews in kisses, too.

We had a lot of fun over the weekend with our friends from out of town visiting.  It’s a pair of sisters, the boyfriend of one, and the two teenage sons of the other.  We had people ALL OVER in our house!  It was great!  We went down to Savannah one day and walked all over, stopping at the candy store on River Street and through the squares.  We had dinner at a Scottish pub and went on a terrible walking ghost tour that we skipped out of early.  By the time we left, everyone was exhausted, with sore feet, and irritated at the tour guide.  But dinner was excellent!

We took them to Hunting Island another day.  It was a beautiful day and we splashed in the waves some, sat in the shade and chatted some, and watched the boys with their boundless energy try again and again to catch a wave with the boogie boards.  The beach was strange, though, because the water was filled with floating wood debris that made it really uncomfortable.  The old foundations of buildings that had long washed away were exposed – the last time we came they were covered in sand.  I had no idea there was so much concrete buried on that beach!  The whole shoreline was changed.  Apparently a big storm came through a couple weeks ago, but I was astonished at how much it affected the island.

The rest of the time, we sat around chatting and playing cards and enjoying each other’s company.  We played a several hours long game of Munchkin, the boys played Halo, I taught the adults how to make bread in a breadmaker, one of the boys showed me some tips for the guitar, and the whole weekend was relaxed and fun and comfortable.  After they left yesterday, the house was too quiet.  I walked around looking at everything that’s not quite in the right places and the piles of bedding and Justin told me not to mope.  “But they’re gone!”  “No moping!”  “But I miss them!”

On the other hand, a couple of our other friends, who live in Beaufort right now, are moving closer to Bluffton.  They signed into an apartment over the weekend that’s 15 minutes or so from our place.  They’re moving at the end of August and that’s going to be awesome.  Okay, not the moving during a horribly hot time of year part because that’s going to suck.  But having them so much closer is going to seriously rock chickens.  Movie night!!

Meanwhile, have I mentioned that we’re not going to move?  We couldn’t find anything we liked in our price range.  So, that’ll hold off for another year, I guess.

My plans for this evening include cleaning our bedroom and the bathroom so they’re back the way they’re supposed to be, and maybe the kitchen because I’ll be in there making a loaf of banana bread anyway.  Maybe watching some television, or reading the book I’m supposed to finish before book club on Saturday.  Eating leftovers for dinner.  And going to bed at a decent hour.  It’s going to be exciting!

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Shiny!

Monday, June 6th, 2011

I know I’ve been terribly remiss about updating lately but I’ve been distracted.  I heard an acronym the other day that fits it perfectly.  ADOS:  Attention Deficit OH SHINY!

 Justin and I determined that we don’t really watch TV.  So what was the point in paying for it to be delivered to our house?  Justin did a bunch of work chatting with our cable provider and for an additional $5/month, removed about $70 from our monthly bill, cleared space in our media cabinets by taking out the cable boxes, and removed live TV from our lives entirely.

Yay!

We then turned around and put some of that money into Hulu Plus, which will satisfy most of our television wants, along with the websites for those actual shows.  So, TV?  Fixed.

Then we went and ended our relationship with Verizon and started new terms with Sprint.  So far, it’s been a rocky relationship.  I haven’t been able to get access to the information I want on their website and their customer service has been *really* annoying.

On the other hand, I spent my whole weekend playing around with my very shiny new smart phone.  It’s an LG Optiumus S.  It’s purple.  It has things on there that tell me the weather and what movies are showing nearby and where to find cheap gas and MY CALENDAR and my to do list (though that one’s still a work in progress) and oh, my gosh, it’s SO AWESOME.  *cue the kid at the end of The Incredibles movie there*

Unfortunately, it turns out we don’t actually have cell service at our house.  So we’re looking at what we can do about that because phones that don’t actually work, while they’re very pretty, are kind of pointless.  And, since there’s no service, I haven’t set up my voicemail yet, so if you call and get a weird answer, that’d be why.

But it was fun and terribly distracting sitting there with my brand new phone going “Oh!  What does THAT do?!”  Plus, I couldn’t get my contacts list to transfer over so I had to do that all by hand.  The bonus there is that my whole physical address book just became obsolete because it’s all stored electronically now.

Oh!  Our phone numbers stayed the same, by the way.  So you don’t have to worry about that.

And my podcasts upload automatically!  I have so many stories to listen to now!!

Anyway, it’s my first Android phone, so I’m still stumbling my way though stuff.  If any of you more experienced users have any advice, I’d love to hear it.

We went to see the new X-Man movie over the weekend, too!  It was very good.  I enjoyed it a whole lot.  You have to ignore some continuity problems, if you’re the kind of person who notices that type of thing, but I thought it was a lot of fun.  It made me gasp in surprise and alarm and made me really sad in some spots and made me laugh at points and I thought it was an entirely enjoyable experience.

A very happy belated birthday to Amy and Isaac and belated happy anniversary to Mom and Dad!  I’m sorry I didn’t call any of you (or you, Erica, for our regular chat) but I figured you’d mostly be busy, plus, like I said, no cell service.  But I hope you all had a delightful day!!

Edited to add:  I just wanted to say how tickled I am right now about how my phone has improved my outlook for this afternoon.  This morning, while getting ready for work, I checked the weather on my phone.  And it told me that it would rain this afternoon.  So I brought my umbrella into the office, even though there were clear blue skies.  It’s been thundering for the last 30 minutes (I can’t see outside to know what else is happening) and I am SO HAPPY that I have my big umbrella for what sounds like a wet walk out to my car.

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Randomness!

Thursday, May 26th, 2011

Randomness!

Last night for dinner, we had honey mustard chicken.

  • Take 2 breasts of chicken, salted and peppered to taste
  • Mix together:
    • ¼ cup of honey
    • ¼ cup of spicy mustard
    • ½ teaspoon of paprika
    • ½ teaspoon of parsley
    • ½ teaspoon of basil
  • Put the chicken in a small, lightly greased baking dish and spoon half the mixture over the chicken.
  • Bake it at 350* for 30 minutes.
  • Turn the chicken over and spoon the rest of the mix over that side.
  • Bake it for another 15 minutes or so, until the juices run clear and you’re sure the chicken is done.

I ate it over spaghetti squash.  Next time I do this, I’ll remember that the squash will need to cook hotter and longer than the chicken because it was still a little crunchy when I took it out.

Yesterday the VP over my area had his monthly performance review meeting and I had to give a quick presentation on the 5S status in the area.  To give you an idea of how out of my depth I was in that company, let me quickly explain my organizational chart.  First there’s me.  I report to A. He reports to B.  B is the group head for my department.  B. reports up to C, who’s the director of several departments.  There are several level B guys under C.  C. is one of several directors who report up to D.  D. is one of several VPs who report up to the president of the company.  I’m pretty sure that broadly covers how we’re organized.  So yesterday, I gave a presentation to the level D. guy for my area.  I don’t do a lot of public speaking and especially not to people who get paid that much.  Hopefully I didn’t stumble around too much and I hope I answered all his questions adequately.  The director (level C) came over afterward and thanked me for doing my part at the meeting, which was really surprising.  He’s not a man who gives out positive feedback very often.  So that was nice.

I’ve been wearing makeup to work the last couple of days.  Yesterday, obviously, I had the important meeting.  But I read some articles that said studies show that women in business who wear makeup and skirts are more likely to be respected and advance in their careers than women who don’t.  Also, people who smile a lot are more likely to be trusted.  So, I already like to wear skirts more than pants, so I’m good there.  And I’m pretty good at smiling a lot.  So I’ve started wearing a little makeup, not because I feel like my face needs it but because it’s a tool to try to get more respect at work.  It’s taking some getting used to.  I’ve got to schedule more time into my prep time in the morning.

One of the things that’s really frustrating me at work right now is the amount of perceived self-importance.  I get really tired of dealing with people who think that they’re more important than anyone else around them or that their little piece of paper is more important than whatever else I’m working on right now.  I understand that I’m a small duck on the totem pole, but I’m really tired of hearing the squawking from the rest of the puffed up geese around here.

Justin and I have been playing a video game together that’s got a lot of “go out into the woods and find these items” or “go out into the woods and kill these birds” and stuff like that.  It’s a lot of fun!  My brain is a strange place, though.  Driving into work this morning, I saw a bird land on a wire and thought “What kind of bird is that?  Is that one I need for that quest?  Target the bird to see what kind of bird that is.  Tab.  Click.  Wait, I can’t actually do that!  Dang it!”

Happy birthday, Tim!  I know he doesn’t read my blog, but let him know that I remembered, Erica?  He probably doesn’t care, but I wish him a happy birthday anyway.

I tried my first pistachio on Tuesday.  It was yummy!  Very salty, even though the sodium count wasn’t too bad.  I had a handful of them and enjoyed them.  So I threw some in my lunch bag yesterday for snacking on during the day.  When I went to eat them, I got through 4 of them before my throat started itching and swelling up.  It’s so annoying.  I took a children’s strength allergy medication and felt fine a little while later.

On a slightly related note, if anyone knows where I can get Emerald’s Sweet and Salty Dark Chocolate and Peanut Butter mixed nuts for cheap, let me know.  I have a serious addiction to those nuts and, besides the addiction, they haven’t effected me poorly at all.

I’m also really enjoying sugar free Peppermint Patties.

If you don’t hear from me again for a couple days, we have plans with friends for most of the Memorial Day weekend.  I expect that our days will be filled and our evenings exhausted.  But I’ll try to post pictures later.

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Happy birthday, Luke!

Friday, April 15th, 2011

It’s Luke’s birthday!  And I remembered all day long and still completely failed to call him.  :(   I stink.  But I hope he had a fantastic day!  Just like the rest of my family, I’m going to post pictures, but these are pictures of their garage sale last weekend.  :)

Garage sale set up (9:00)

Books for sale

Book buyers

Book buyers

Dining set for sale

Dining set for sale

Cat free to good home (includes kittens)

Cat free to good home (includes kittens)

Standing around chatting

Butterfly (photo by Krista)

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Happy Birthday, Justin!

Wednesday, November 10th, 2010

Justin did point out with amusement that my post yesterday that started out with “Another short post” was not short at all.  But what can I say?  I got talking about food!

Today is Justin’s birthday (Happy Birthday, love!) and I expect that I’ll be baking a cake and going out to dinner and not really available to sit down and write to all of you.  So I’m writing this up now.  Unfortunately, I don’t have a whole lot to talk about.

But do you know how confusing it is sometimes to have his birthday the day after Nathan’s?  My whole life, there’s been a birthday on November 9th.  So when I think of November birthdays, my brain automatically fills in the blanks as 11/9.  When people ask my husband’s birthday, a lot of times it comes out as “November 9th, 19## . . . no, wait!  November 10th.  Yeah.  The 10th.”  I’m getting better about it, but it’s taken some mental acrobatics.

And speaking of mental, I’m feeling a lot better today compared to yesterday.  There’s a lingering shadow of a headache, but I’m ignoring it.  Seems to be working pretty well.

And now my lunch break is over and it’s time to get back to work.

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